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Jackson, Mississippi -- Men’s Health month is celebrated nationally every June by many offerings of health screenings, health fairs and outreach activities. Under the direction of Dr. Marinelle Payton, Jackson State University (JSU) is in its sixth year of celebrating Men’s Health month by holding its annual “Men’s Health and Healthcare Conference." Dr. Payton directs the JSU Center for Excellence on Minority Health and Health Disparities and is the Principal Investigator for the JSU Institute for Epidemiology and Health Services Research. “The purpose of the annual Men’s Health and Healthcare conferences is to provide a forum to educate and empower men to take a proactive approach to improve the quality of their lives. The conferences are designed to address major issues and diseases facing men.”

This year Dr. Sheon H. Mendoza, internal medicine physican of St. Domincs Hospital in Jackson, served as the opening speaker. Dr. Mendoza provided meeting participants with strategies to best interact with men for protecting health. ““We all can play a role in identifying correctable men's health problems in our everyday lives if we learn what to look for. I used my time to teach people how to spot potential health problems in casual situations.”

Dr. Hill speaking at the conference

NIA contributed to the success of this year’s conference. Dr. Carl V. Hill, Director of NIA’s Office of Special Populations served as keynote speaker for the luncheon meeting held at the Jackson Convention Complex. “It was great to visit Jackson State University and speak with community members, graduate students and faculty that have a real passion for improving the health of men in Mississippi. We hope to continue our collaboration with Jackson State by motivating faculty to apply for the Butler Williams Scholars Program and working specifically with Jackson State’s Center for Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities.”

Hill used his keynote address to point out men’s health behaviors as a nexus for health status and that for some marginalized men, these behaviors may be viewed as contextualized coping. He emphasized the importance of gainful employment and effective social networks for protecting men’s health and addressing related health disparities.

International collaboration is vital to advancing Alzheimer’s disease research, from genetics to biomarkers to translational research.

In a new blog post, Dr. Neil Buckholtz, Director of the Division of Neuroscience at NIA, speaks about his experience at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® 2014 in Copenhagen. “I was pleased to witness firsthand the intense commitment among scientists worldwide to find solutions to this devastating disease,” says Dr. Buckholtz. “Investigators from 75 different countries shared recent findings and explored ways to overcome the challenges of finding ways to treat or prevent this complex disease.”

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.

New funding for health disparities research has just been announced by the National Institute on Aging. This funding will add health disparities projects and researchers to existing NIA grants. Grad students, postdocs, and junior faculty members with appropriate, rigorous projects can work with funded investigators to take advantage of this research funding opportunity.

Carl Hill, Director of the NIA Office Special Populations, explains the initiative in a new blog post. “Health disparities are differences in the incidence and prevalence of disease, mortality, burden of diseases, and life expectancy that exist between population groups in the U.S.,” he writes. “These differences are associated with a broad array of factors that influence health.” This new funding is in addition to NIA’s longstanding diversity supplement program.

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.

Women of color continue to face many challenges in science. Too often, they experience covert or overt racism and sexism in science classrooms and in research workplaces. In a new blog post, Marie Bernard, Deputy Director at the National Institute on Aging, relates how her own experiences encouraged her to get involved in the Women of Color Research Network at NIH.

“WoCRn stimulates the kinds of support that made the difference in my career,” Bernard says, “It goes further, not only providing the opportunity to connect with mentors and peers, but also making resources readily known that may assist with career advancement.” WoCRN is for women of color in research, for people mentoring these women, and for people who value diversity in science, and Dr. Bernard encourages scientists to consider joining.

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.

Research shows that older adults who are active have a lower risk of diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, obesity, depression, and some cancers than their less fit peers.

With leading experts on aging, exercise, and motivation, the NIA developed Go4Life, a health campaign encouraging older adults to make physical activity part of their daily lives. Dr. Chhanda Dutta of the Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology, discusses the details in a new blog post, emphasizing, “If you do research with older adults or on senior wellness and health education programs, you might be especially interested in the details of our campaign.”

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.

Healthy older adults age 65 to 85 with normal memory but who may be at risk of Alzheimer’s are invited to participate in a major clinical trial to prevent or delay the disease.

The trial—Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease, or A4—is testing an experimental drug, solanezumab, to find out if it can help slow memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s. Researchers want to know if starting treatment early in the disease process, before overt symptoms appear, can keep Alzheimer’s at bay.

Investigators are recruiting 1,000 cognitively normal volunteers at 56 sites in the United States, as well 4 in Canada and 1 in Australia. See a list of study sites with contact information.

The A4 Study, led by the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, is supported by a public-private partnership funded by the National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly and Company, and several philanthropic organizations.

NIA co-hosting 2014 webinar series for professionals on Alzheimer’s and related dementias

The National Institute on Aging, Administration for Community Living, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are collaborating to host a free webinar series to increase knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Resources that professionals in the public health, aging services, and research networks can use to inform, educate, and empower community members, people with dementia, and their family caregivers will be highlighted.

Grant applicants sometimes receive emails from the NIH asking for additional information on their grant applications. These emails do not necessarily mean the grant will be funded. A new blog post by Dr. Robin Barr, Director of the NIA Division of Extramural Activities, helps applicants understand these automated emails that arrive as part of the application process. “Everyone with a score better than 40 is asked for extra information,” he explains.

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.

A new scientific resource—genetics data on 78,000 participants—is now available to qualified researchers. Scientists studying diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and certain eye diseases may be interested in applying for access to these data. Dr. Winnie Rossi, deputy director of the NIA Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology, has a new blog post explaining what's available and its value. "I think the data provide researchers with an unparalleled research resource," she writes.

The NIA blog publishes weekly with information on grants and funding policy, research priorities, scientific meetings, and topics of interest to researchers and others in the scientific community. Subscribe to get it weekly in your email inbox, or grab the RSS feed.